thehefner | May. 30th, 2008

Every Friday morning is a gauntlet wherein I jump, duck, and dodge to avoid LOST being spoiled for me before I finally, one of these days, settle down to catch up from the start.

The way you folks talk, this show had better put out. Third base at least.

Also, GIP, because JUSTICE finally came out in softcover, and I had to scan Alex Ross' take on Harvey, which might be one of my all-time favorite depictions. That's the shit I'd like to see in THE DARK KNIGHT.

Speaking of Batman, I just rewatched BATMAN RETURNS for the first time in many a year. I'm kinda torn, because on one hand, I feel like--objectively--I might consider this a work of pure Tim Burton art, a modern day love letter to German Expressionist horror and surrealism filled with dazzling dark imagery and sweeping operatic... so on and so on, that sort of B.S.

Or maybe, even when you take away from the fact that it's every bit as campy and shit-on-the-sources unfaithful as BATMAN FOREVER, it's still just too grotesque. There is no other word for this film. Grotesque. The original BATMAN film has aged terribly, but there's plenty there that can be enjoyed and quoted on its own (though make no mistake, as a Batman film, it fails big time on so many levels).

Is BATMAN RETURNS like Ang Lee's HULK, a good film whose downfall is not living up to expectations of audience/fans in favor of doing distinctly its own thing... or is it just plain too grotesque and nasty? Or even a just plain bad film? Or are there any folks here who love BATMAN RETURNS, as I'm sure there likely are?

Finally saw INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. I haven't seen the original trilogy for about ten years, so I can't make any comparisons, but I simply had to quote